Kenya-Ngai( East Africa)

Wiki Information

This article is about the African religious concept. For information on the ethnic group in Vietnam, see Ngái. For information on the Chinese family name, see Ngai (surname). For Māori tribal names starting Ngai, see Iwi.
Ngai (Enkai, En-kai, Engai, Eng-ai, Mweai, Mwiai) is the supreme God in the religions of the Kamba, Kikuyu and Maasai nationalities of Kenya. According to the Kikuyu beliefs, he lives on the holy mountain Kirinyaga (Mount Kenya).
According to the Kamba, he lives somewhere in a hiding place and no one knows where.
The Maasai of Kenya in their creation narrative recount the origin of humanity to be fashioned by the Creator Enkai from a single tree or leg which split into three pieces. To the first father of the Maasai, he gave a stick. To the first father of the Kikuyu, he gave a hoe. To the first father of the Kamba, he gave a bow and arrow. Each son survived in the wild. The first father of the Maasai used his stick to herd animals. The first father of the Kikuyu used his hoe to cultivate the ground. The first father of the Kamba used his bow and arrow to hunt.^[1]Although Maasai people have also converted to Christianity, many still practice their traditional religion. The Maasai believe that he is the god of the sun, love and was the creator of the world; in another one of their traditions, this god married Olapa (the goddess of the moon).

• Ngai (Enkai, En-kai, Engai, Eng-ai, Mweai, Mwiai)=Enki??

The two fought one day, and Olapa, being a short tempered woman, inflicted Enkai with a wound. To hide his shame, he took to shining very brightly, so that no one could look straight at him. In revenge, Enkai hit Olapa back and struck out one of her eyes. This can be seen today, when the moon is full.

Central Africa- Kuba

Kuba Creation Myth 

Wiki Info 

Mbombo, also called Bumba, is the creator god in the religion and mythology of the Kuba of Central Africa. In the Mbombo creation myth, Mbombo was a giant covered with white skin who had the form of a man.^[1]The story of Mbombo's creation tells that in the beginning, Mbombo was alone, and darkness and water covered the all earth. It would happen that Mbombo came to feel an intense pain in his stomach, and then Mbombo vomited the sun, the moon, and stars. The heat and light from the sun evaporated the water covering the earth, creating clouds, and after time, the dry hills emerged from the water. Then Mbombo vomited once more, bringing forth nine animals: the leopard, called Koy Bumba; the eagle, Ponga Bumba; the crocodile, Ganda Bumba; the fish, Yo Bumba; the tortoise, Kono Bumba; a black leopard-like animal, Tsetse Bumba; a white heron, Nyanyi Bumba; a scarab; and a goat named Budi. Mbombo also vomited many men, one of them all white like himself who is called Loko Yima.^[1][2]These nine animals went on to create all the world's creatures. The heron created all flying birds but one, the kite, and the crocodile created snakes and the iguana. The goat, Budi, brought forth all the horned animals, the scarab all insects, and Yo Bumba, all fish.^[2]Three of Mbombo's sons then said they would finish creating the world. The first to try, Nyonye Ngana, vomited white ants, but died after.^[1] To honor him, the ants went deep in the earth for dark soil to bury him and transformed the barren sands at the earth's surface. The second, Chonganda, created the first plant, which in turn gave rise to all trees, grasses and flowers. And Chedi Bumba, the third son, made the last bird, the kite.^[2]Tsetse Bumba caused trouble on the earth so Mbombo chased him into the sky where he became the thunderbolt. This left people without fire, so Mbombo showed them how to make it from trees. Once the creation was complete and peaceful, Mbombo delivered it to mankind and retreated into the heavens, leaving Loko Yima to serve as "god upon the earth".^[1][2] The woman of the waters, Nchienge, lived in the East, and her son, Woto, became the first king of the Kuba.^[3]

• Vomit = a form  of giving birth 
• Thunder/trickster god
• Dark water covered earth

Southern Mali-Mandé creation myth(West Africa)

WIKI Information

The Mandé creation myth is the traditional creation myth of the Mandé peoples of southern Mali. The story begins when Mangala, the creator god, tries making a balaza seed but it failed. Then he made two eleusine seeds of different kinds, which the people of Keita call "the egg of the world in two twin parts which were to procreate".^[1] Then Mangala made three more pairs of seeds, and each pair became the four elements, the four directions, as corners in the framework of the world's creation. This he folded into a hibiscus seed. The twin pairs of seeds, which are seen as having opposite sex, are referred to as the egg or placenta of the world. This egg held an additional two pairs of twins, one male and one female, who were the archetype of people.

Among them was Pemba who wished to dominate and so he left the egg early, ripping a piece of his placenta. Pemba fell through space and his torn placenta became the earth. Because he left the egg prematurely the earth formed from this piece was arid and barren and of no use to Pemba. So Pemba tried to return to the egg, to rejoin his twin and his place in the rest of the placenta. But it was not to be found-Mangala had changed the remaining placenta into the sun. So Pemba stole male seeds from Mangala's clavicle, and took them to the barren earth and planted them there. Only one of them could germinate in the dry earth, a male eleusine seed which grew in the blood of the placenta. But because Pemba had stolen the seed and it germinated in Pemba's own placenta, the earth became impure and the eleusine seed turned red.

Faro, the other male twin, who had assumed the form of twin fish, was sacrificed to atone for Pemba and purify the earth. Faro was cut into sixty pieces which fell to the earth where they became trees. Mangala restored Faro to life giving him now the form of a human, and sent him down to earth in an ark made from his placenta. With him came four pairs of male and four pairs of female twins who became the original ancestors of mankind, all made from Faro's placenta. The ark also held all the animals and plants, which also carried the male and female life force. Sourakata followed with the first sacred drum made of the sacrificed Faro's skull which he played to bring rain. When the rain did not come, the ancestral smith came to earth and with his hammer, he struck a rock and then the rain came.

Faro created all the world that mankind has come to know from the descendants of Mangala's original egg seeds. He caused the land to flood to wash away the impure seed of his brother, Pemba. From this flood, only the good were saved, sheltered by Faro's ark.^[2][3]

Republic of Uganda-Kintu

Kintu
Wiki Info

According to this legend, Kintu was the first person on earth, the father of all people.In a distant past, Kintu was the only person on the earth, living alone with his cow. Ggulu the creator of all things lived up in heaven with his many children, who occasionally came down to earth to play. On one such occasion, Ggulu's daughter Nambi and some of her brothers encountered Kintu and his cow in Buganda. Nambi instantly took a liking to Kintu and decided to stay and marry him. After her brothers pleaded with her, she returned to heaven with Kintu to ask for her father's permission for the marriage.
Ggulu was not pleased, but blessed the marriage after Nambi had persuaded him. Ggulu advised Kintu and Nambi to leave heaven secretly, so that Walumbe, one of Nambi's brothers would not find out about the marriage until they had left. It was feared that Walumbe (which means "that which causes sickness and death") would insist on going with them and bring them misery.
Kintu and Nambi set out for earth the next morning, taking with them the few things that Nambi packed, and her chicken. While they were descending, Nambi remembered that she had forgotten to bring the millet that her chicken would feed on. Kintu tried to persuade her not to return to fetch the millet, but she left him and returned to fetch the millet. On the way back from fetching the millet, she met Walumbe. She did not tell him where she was going, but filled with curiosity, Walumbe insisted on going with her. Kintu and Nambi were therefore forced to go to earth together with Walumbe.
Walumbe's presence on earth caused suffering and conflicts. That, according to the legend, is how sickness and death started.
The area where Walumbe is traditionally thought to have fallen to earth and to have hidden from Ggulu is the Tanda Pits, west of Kampala on the south side of the road to the town of Mityana.

My notes

• First man on Earth lived with a Cow. (Kintu)
• Ggulu Creator of all thing ,lives in Heaven  ,with many  children  who occasionally come down to earth  to play 
•  Ggulu's daughter and some brothers  came down , she met  Kintu , she liked  Kintu ,so she stays to marry him 
• Walumbe "god"of sickness an death ,he came to  earth  and  spread /started  death and sickness
• Tanda pits  mark  the area where Walumbe fell to earth

WIKI on Walumbe

In tradition with Gandan culture, Walumbe, as a brother of the bride, claimed one of Kintu's children as his own. Kintu refuses Walumbe and continues to do so throughout the years. Frustrated, Walumbe, then begins to kill a single child every day. After conversing with Ggulu, Kaikuzi is sent to aid Kintu in sending Walumbe back to heaven. Walumbe grapples with Kaikuzi and then retreats by digging and hiding within the ground. Kaikuzi soon tires of pursuing Warumbe and asks all of mankind to be silent for two days to lure Walumbe out. When Walumbe finally emerges, children cry out at the sight of him and he again retreats into the earth. Upon Kintu's dismissal, Kaikuzi then returns to Ggulu and explains the situation. Upon hearing of this, Ggulu allows Walumbe to remain on Earth.

Walumbe is therefore blamed as the reason for death on Earth.

South Africa -KoiSan

As  qouted  on Wiki

San are culturally entirely distinct peoples. They do not share any of their principle mythological figures

I do  not fully agree  with  that ....as i have already  seen  some Koisan  believes of  a god  connected to  thunder ... 


Wiki info

• Cagn (also known Kaang) is the supreme god of the Bushmen of southern Africa. He is the first being and the creator of the world. He is a trickster god who can shape-shift, most often into the praying mantis but also takes the form of a bull eland, a louse, a snake, and a caterpillar In some variants of the Khoisan creation story, Cagn receives so much opposition in the world that he moves his abode from the earth to the top of the sky. Cagn is said to have created the moon which holds special significance to the San people; the phase of the moon dictated when rainmaking rituals were to be performed.

• Coti is the wife of Cagn. She gave birth to the eland, and Cagn hid it near a secluded cliff to let it grow.^[10] One day Cagn’s sons, Cogaz and Gewi, were out hunting. Not knowing their father's love for the eland, they killed it.^[11]Cagn was angry, and told Gewi to put the blood from the dead eland into a pot and churn it.^[12] Blood spattered from the pot onto the ground and turned into snakes.^[12] Cagn was displeased. Next, Gewi scattered the blood, and it turned into hartebeests.^[12] Again, Cagn was unhappy. He told Coti to clean the pot and add more blood from the eland, with fat from the heart. She churned it, and Cagn sprinkled the mixture on the ground. It turned into a large herd of eland.^[12] This was how Cagn gave meat to his people to hunt and eat.^[11] The Bushmen attribute the wildness of the eland to the fact that Cagn's sons killed it before it was ready to be hunted, spoiling it.^[11][13] The scholar David Lewis-Williams recounts a variation of the eland myth involving the meerkats. Cagn's daughter the porcupine married Kwammang-a, a meerkat. They had a son called Ichneumon (a mongoose).^[14] Ichneumon was close to his grandfather Cagn.^[15] Cagn used to take honey to feed his favourite, the eland.^[16] The people were curious as to what Cagn was doing with the honey, so they sent Ichneumon to spy on him and find out.^[16] When Ichneumon saw Cagn giving honey to the eland, he reported his discovery to his brothers, the meerkats.^[17] While Cagn was out gathering honey, the meerkats persuaded Ichneumon to show them where the eland was.^[18] They called the eland out of its hiding place and killed it.^[18]

• Heitsi-Eibib is usually as a culture hero, but his role is fluid.^[19] He is sometimes called a trickster. In other contexts, he appears as a patron of hunters and in some stories he even had a part in creating the world, impressing specific characteristics into different species. For example, he cursed the lion to walk on ground instead of nesting on a tree.^[20][19] The multiple roles of Heitsi-eibib have been called a reflection of the fluidity of the Khoisan's religious resources and rituals, which are usually ambiguous and lack in standardization.^[19] Heitsi-eibib was also a life-death-rebirth figure, dying and resurrecting himself on numerous occasions.^[21] Resulting from this, his funeral cairns can be found in many locations in southern Africa, and it is customary to throw a stone onto them for good luck.^[22] In different accounts, Heitsi-eibib is born from either a girl or—more often—a cow, who got pregnant by eating a magical grass.^[23] Heitsi-eibib was a legendary hunter, sorcerer and warrior.
• Tsui'goab is a sky deity associated with the phenomena of thunder and lightning.^[24] His name translates to bloodied knee, and he is said to dwell in a red heaven located somewhere in the east, as opposed to Gaunab’s black heaven.^[25]
• Gaunab is a god of sickness and death who is locked in constant battle with Tsui'goab. ^[26]
• Utixo or Tiqua is the name used by missionaries as a translation for the Abrahamic God.
• The Ga-Gorib is a beast who lived on the edge of a pit. It would trick people into throwing stones at it, but the stones would always bounce back from the creature's hide, and the thrower would fall into the pit. When the hero Heitsi-eibib met the beast, he refused to throw stones until Ga-gorib turned away from him, whereupon he cast a stone that fell Ga-gorib into its own pit.^[21] In another version of the same story, Heitsi-eibib wrestled with the Ga-gorib and was thrown to the pit repeatedly, but could not be kept down. In the end, the Ga-gorib is again thrown to his own pit by Heitsi-eibib.^[27] Gorib is "the spotted one" (meaning leopard, cheetah, or leguaan) in Central Khoisan languages, so the Ga-gorib probably has some connection with this formidable species. The element "ga-" remains to be explained. Possibly, it is a negative, "not-a-leopard", not only on comparative morphological grounds, but also because its adversary Heitsi-eibib is connected symbolically to the leopard.
• The Aigamuxa (singular Aigamuchab) are a race of man-eating, dune-dwelling creature that are mostly human-looking, except that they have eyes on the instep of their feet. In order to see, they have to go down on hands and knees and lift one foot in the air. This is a problem when the creature chases prey, because it has to run blind.
• Hai-uri & Bi-Bloux are man-eating creatures which have only one leg and one arm, and travel by jumping, similar to the monopods in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. Hai-uri is the male variant, while Bi-Bloux is female.